Unbound Boneman!

Skullius looked at his nemesis hatefully, wondering how he would deal with this situation. He was angered by how this world was juggling him between the frying pan and the fire.

The boar didn't seem to want to leave him alone and it looked more resolute than ever, glaring back at him as if to return the favor.

The now blue flames in Skullius' sockets blazed. He considered his next move.

'Damn it! What do I do? Last time I was barely able to evade this guy, I....Wait!' It suddenly dawned on him that he was not a Moron embedded in bone anymore!

He had evolved thrice!

Surely, that had to count for something.

In the next instant, he took off at top speed, heading to the right. The wind blew past him as he zoomed like an otherworldly locomotive. The fast kind!

Skullius was stumped by his new speed.

"Now we're talking!" he cried.

The boar was perplexed by his sudden dash, but it quickly followed, charging at full speed while the red energy around it bubbled. However, it soon found that reducing the gap between it and Skullius was much more difficult now.

[I can't believe that with your newfound strength, your first choice is to run away].

"Oh, what do you know, Voice In My Head?!" Skullius barked.

[What I know is that you should check your status more often. New skills are available to you even though you haven't proceeded with the full options from the Lifeless package].

"New skills?" Skullius' socket flames blazed and he pulled up the guidance field.

~~~

[ Name : Skullius ]

[ Tier : 0 ]

[ Level : 1 ]

[ Race : Null Lifeform (Boneman) ]

[ Inv. Status : Doomed (Adverse) ×2 ]

-------

[ Stats ]

[ Strength : 20 ]

[ Agility : 20 ]

[ Intelligence : 5 ]

[ Endurance : Infinite ]

[ Luck : Atrocious ]

-----

[ Health : 20/20 ]

-----

[ Mana : 40/40 ]

-----

[ Null Life Essence : 50/3000 ]

----

[ Skills ]

[ Mana Sense | Lv. 10 (Permission to evolve) ]

[ Flesh It Like You Mean It | Lv. 1 ]

[ Lifeless Evolution <Pending > ]

-Static Limbo

-Null Extraction

-Unbound

....

~~~~

"Oh, it changed! Look at all this!" Skullius exclaimed, jovial, but then his mood darkened immediately. "Wait! My luck is still atrocious?!"

[...].

"Argh, never mind that! There are new skills! Ohhhh, let's see!"

~~~

[ Static Limbo ]

Suspend a target at the corridor of life and death. The duration is dependent on the level and overall strength difference between the user and the target(s).

Mana Requirements: 50 Mana Points

Duration: Dependent on level difference

Cooldown: 5 minutes

----

[ Null Extraction ]

Extract the Null Life Essence from living creatures.... when they are dead. The maximum time limit amounts to 60 seconds.

Mana Requirements: None

Duration: None

Cooldown: None

----

[ Unbound <Upgradeable > ]

Using Null Life Essence, grant upgrades to any stat, skill, or weapon.

-More info accessible-

Mana Requirements: None

Duration: 5 minutes (minimum)

Cooldown: 1 hour

~~~

"Arrrghhhh too much information!" Skullius clutched his skull with his one remaining hand. "What is all this?!"

[I'm not about to give you a crash course when you are on the run. Get rid of your tail and finish your evolution!].

Skullius grunted with displeasure. He perused through his new skills again but couldn't understand what they meant, especially the first two.

Null Life Essence?

Limbo?

The third one was a bit more understandable. Upgrades to any stat?

That seemed simple enough for him.

'What's this Null Life Essence? I already have 50 points of it already.'

As he ran, the view changed from the lush forest to a downward slope that led into a lake. But then his socket flames flared when he spotted something... ominous.

As the patches of grass became less prominent from the terrain, shifting from the thick vegetation to the sandy shore of the lake... the remaining strands of grass and shrubs transitioned from verdant green to turquoise blue.

Skullius had seen this before, and he wasn't going to fall for it again.

It was a Territory!

Something overpowered lived in that lake!

Recalling his encounter with Azila, Skullius bellowed. How would he wiggle out of another Territory when he had barely done so before?

He turned to the boar lagging behind him and felt like he had come to a new realization.

"Flesh you, bro! It was you all along! You're leading me to places that will get me killed!"

With that, he took a sharp turn to his left and avoided the lake. He rushed back up the slope which led to the ongoing forest expanse.

'I can't keep running away from this sockethole! He'll lead me into another Territory eventually. Might as well see what this [Unbound] skill can do. If it can upgrade anything, then...'

Skullius activated [Unbound].

He felt a unique energy, bright blue in hue, wrap around his bones. It was as though some giant was clutching his body tenderly. A notification popped into his vision right then.

[What would you like to upgrade with Unbound?]

"Strength," said Skullius firmly as he reached the top of the slope, ran a good distance, and turned back.

He was going to attack the moment the boar came up the end of the slop. It would probably think that he was still taking to his heels, and that would be his chance to terminate its life subscription.

A powerful sensation thrummed through his bones. He felt his strength increase by a margin!

[Unbound is active. +5 to STR]

'Oh yes!' Grinning inwardly while imagining that right now he would probably be able to bully Bonet, he readied his attack and bolted towards the slope. The instant the bellowing head of the boar popped up, he launched his bony fist into its forehead.

POW!

The boar's head was slammed to the ground. Dust flew up as it squealed. Skullius didn't stop there. He raised his arm and brought it down again with all his might, pounding a determined fist against the enemy.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" he cried as he pummelled the boar again, and again with all he had. "I! Gave! You! A! Chance! To! Get! A! Life! Now, DIE!"

The boar tried to put up a fight, but having exhausted itself even before Skullius had entered Azila's Territory, it failed to find the strength to retaliate. It didn't help that the enemy wasn't going to tire himself out in this lifetime. Skullius kept hammering it in the head with machine-like consistency.

After almost a minute of pounding the brown creature, a notification finally appeared before Skullius, concluding his rivalry with the boar.

[You have killed (I) LV1 Dead-End-Apocalypse-Boar. You have gained experience]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

Skullius finally stopped hitting the boar. His fist was stained in blood drawn from the nasty depression on the creature's head.

[Your prey-]

"Yes. Yes! I've finally killed this pain in the pelvis!" he shouted. His relief was so great that he didn't pay the notification that had just popped up a look.

Leveling up as a result was also good news, but he was more happy about the murder.

"Disgusting!" he remarked at the boar's innards. "EAT ON THAT FLESHLINGS!"

[That's somewhat racist].

"What was that?"

[Nothing. You should finish your evolution before your atrocious luck finds you another boar].

"Oh, that's right!"

Skullius focused on the Lifeless Evolution. It was time to discover what this was all about. A new journey was about to begin and Skullius had no idea how much struggle and benefit it would bring.